Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum Data Centers

what are your thoughts on them?
seems like they are trying to put one anywhere and everywhere. Are they really data centers or are they sold as that and will be something more (national security, etc)
my tiktok blew up on them last night and it got me thinking

At some point Moore's Law will kick in and data centers will become environmental wastelands.

Once the democrats decide how to get their $, they’ll back them.

They are a necessary evil. As the world’s reliance on compute continues to surge they will continue to build and consume.

Personally, I am not a fan of them and wouldn’t want one in my area - but I like the convenience they afford me. I like my IPhone, streaming TV services, Internet, weather updates, ALdeer,…etc.

I believe that the whole data driven and enshitification of the internet is simply an elaborate tool to get you, the consumer, to have as many paid subscriptions for content as humanly possible.

It's just another way to separate you from your money.

How is it that we've gotten by without them for the past 20 years but suddenly they are a REQUIREMENT.

The first ones I was involved with was at the end of 2009. They would build 2 identical facilities to store the same data. The amount of space to store all of the electronic data is multiplying at a huge rate. Takes a lot of energy as well. We are just structural engineers engineers but the need for engineers to design the structure is such that companies who specialize in their design are always trying to buy companies to do nothing but Data Centers.

Then you get stories like this. In fairness, the city would have sold it to whoever for the money, in this case it was a data center.

Farmer donates land for a park, city sells it for data center development — $10 gift became $10M for city government, with $30M tax expected over next decade https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-i...ith-usd30m-tax-expected-over-next-decade

Why all the objections to them? Do they create jobs? Do they create hazardous waste? What’s the big deal.

Local governments don't care a thing about deed stipulations when they are the beneficiary of the land. I know this personally due to some land that was donated to Walker county, with a stipulation, by one of my ancestors.

I understand the power consumption and that they require cooling for the equipment. But are they a drain on water resources ? Seems like you could do a closed system and remove some of the demand.

Google: The Problems with Data Centers. The list is too long to post here. Here is a sampler.

Energy Consumption Equivalent to thousands of homes; expected to reach 10-15% of U.S. demand.
Water Usage Up to 5 million gallons daily; strains local resources.
Pollution Emissions from fossil fuels and diesel generators; health risks for residents.
Economic Impact Increased utility costs and infrastructure burdens on local communities.

There is a big one being built on a 75 acre site on Lakeshore Parkway in Birmingham by Nebius and there is MAJOR community uproar about it. There was a public hearing this morning at Birmingham City Hall; I am sure it was a chitstorm.

They’re building one where I live on 1500 acres. Community is in an uproar. Bessemer wanted it so they came in a rezoned an area that wasn’t theirs so that they could. It included a couple older communities they then sold the property out from under them. Very very shady. The communities have been fighting for the better part of a year to no avail

Lot of angry people about them along 3 counties in Panhandle. Commissioners won’t allow them. Some permanent others temporarily

I'm not against them, but I don't want to live next to one. I don't want them buying the 3,000-acre timber tract next to my land and turning it into a biological desert.

It's a necessary evil in the world we live in, but I do wish there was some type of legislation to prevent them from buying up thousands and thousands of acres of wildlife habitat so that they can store our TikTok videos.

Like prisons; we need them, but nobody wants them in their neighborhood.

3 Solar farms gonna go in down here in north Baldwin/Escambia county. Communities trying to fight it, but it's a losing battle.

So, with every new iteration of smart phone we're told that it can store the information that 10K sets of 1968 World Book Encyclopedias had but yoyr current phone can only store up to 6K sets of WB Encyclopedias. We're told that smaller chips store more memory. SO, why are data centers being built that cover 100 acres of farm land, they have supplemental power from a 600 acre solar farm nearby and heet 300K gallons of river water every day for cooling? If one end of the circuit can be 'miniature' why can't the other end be the same?

I think they are used to spy on us, like FLOCK cameras. More surveillance.